Month: July 2016

One of the first cases that ChoraChori-Nepal had to deal with was the situation of two sisters who had been rejected by their alcoholic father and step-mother. The girls had been staying in their shack (pictured) in Godawari before the step mother threw them out to fend for themselves. The girls resorted to sleeping rough and begging from neighbours. Shailaja intervened and managed to get the girls placed at a local Roman Catholic refuge run by the Sisters of Charity of St Anne. From here they have been able to rejoin school.

At a follow up visit earlier this month Abha and Shailaja found the girls to be very happy in their new situation, acting as “big sisters” to the other nine girls at the refuge. The sisters commented on how rather than going hungry every day the nuns have provided them with packed lunches to go to school and helped them with their homework. The girls have a secure future also because their care costs are covered entirely by our friends at On Devon-Taranaki Soroptimist Club in New Plymouth, New Zealand. So all in all a very positive outcome from what were grim circumstances for two vulnerable teenagers.

Seven excited girls have arrived in Kathmandu ready to start an education and training programme that is being launched by ChoraChori-Nepal. The girls, who are in the age range 17 to 19, come from Tipling, Dhading District. This is a remote part of west Nepal, quite close to the Tibet border, that was near the epicentre of the April 2015 earthquake. 98% of homes in their area were destroyed and the girls’ families are still living in makeshift tents. Three more girls from the area are due to join them soon, delayed in their travel because of landslides that have followed the arrival of this year’s monsoon.

Why these ten in the midst of so much need? They have been referred to us by our contact in Tipling, Father Norbert, who lives and teaches in the local school. The reason he has selected them is that all have passed the coveted 10th Grade School Leaver’s Certificate (SLC) examination, one of them at A+ standard, but there is no Higher Secondary (Grades 11 and 12) provision in the area. We feel these girls have more than earned the opportunity to continue with their studies. The alternative is early marriage – most of their peers are already married with babies – and there is a risk of being trafficked as all the girls are from the trafficking-prone Tamang community.

This project will run for three years, with a further ten girls due to join us in mid 2017. They will study but also have the chance to learn vocational skills after we reinstate a silver jewellery workshop from January next year. Those who show the aptitude and interest may take this up as their profession. For others we will teach business skills as a second string to their bow.

The girls have all settled well into their new situation in Godawari, been given pocket money and met with our very good supporter, Saroj KC, who is the Principal of the local Kitini School that they’ll be attending. The thing that is remarkable is that all the girls have been accommodated in the home of the Operational Director of ChoraChori-Nepal, Shailaja CM. Once again Shailaja is being welcoming and hospitable to young people in need – this makes her and us special!

The ChoraChori #educatingreeti crowdfunding challenge ends at 2 p.m. BST on the 18th July. We are doing really well, maintaining our strong lead over the other charities – see the Leader Board. However it would be really great if we could get just a little closer to our fundraising target to help us achieve our goals on the ground.

The picture above was taken today during a visit by ChoraChori-Nepal to one of our three beneficiary schools at Chapakharka. Thanks to the funding we’ve received from our 60 donors we’ve been able to appoint a new full time teacher at the school and from tomorrow we’ll be able to encourage attendances further by introducing cooked school lunches! An update on the other schools will follow tomorrow.

Following upon his design support to us in the first few months of this year UK architect volunteer Jonny Davies spent a couple of weeks visiting Nepal and ChoraChori last month. Here is his report on his visit. Now returned to the UK, Jonny can revisit plans for the building of our Kathmandu refuge, better informed from seeing the lie of the land first-hand. We’ll be good to go for the end of the monsoon.

Our Shanghai to Kathmandu cyclists have now returned to UK pending building plans being finalised, but before they left they were able to spend plenty of time with the Kathmandu refuge kids. And of course to enjoy some great Nepalese food!

Meeting our Kathmandu refuge kids July 2nd, 2016Philip Holmes

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